


If Only We Were Leaf-born

by OHai_Here



Category: Naruto
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Kumogakure, Animal Characteristics, But like only a little bit, Cannibalism, Canon-Typical Violence, Family, Friendship, Gen, Kumogakure, Missing-Nin, Not a fun OR fresh place, Pre-Third Shinobi War, Sakumo is a good dad, Third Shinobi War, its barely there
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:41:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26420545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OHai_Here/pseuds/OHai_Here
Summary: Kumogakure is not the magical land, there is no kindness, nor mercy between the lightning strikes. Hatake are as loyal and vicious as wolves. Though related, they are not dogs, no matter how Kumo may have thought them domesticated. Dogs may not bite the hand that feeds, but wolves will abandon the village which betrays.Bite hard, crunch down, and savour the taste as blood floods your mouth.Or, Sakumo is born to Kumogakure and he takes Kakashi and they promptly become missing-nin.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi & Hatake Sakumo, Hatake Kakashi & Nohara Rin
Comments: 29
Kudos: 228





	1. Missing

**Author's Note:**

> Listen, brain goes 'haha what WIPs hand-typing machine go brrrrrrrrrrr' and then I cry and start typing like a dumbass.

It all starts when one day, Sakumo bursts into their home, face grim and determined and says, “Kakashi, pack everything essential and seal every you want to keep here. We’re leaving.”

“Where are we going?” he asks. Sakumo doesn’t answer so Kakashi says, “How long will we be gone?”

Sakumo’s face is so solemn that Kakashi doesn’t ask anything else, not a single word said until the pair are so far from Kumogakure that the tall lightning rod of a Raikage Tower is nowhere in sight.

It’s been a silent, forty-minute dead sprint towards the west, they climb and descend two mountains in that time. They take a short break, Kakashi still young, only six years old with the stamina to match. Sakumo beckons a hand towards his panting son and says, “Kakashi, give me your hitai-ate.”

He knows what’s going to happen the second Sakumo pulls out a kunai. “Tou-san,” he begs in between huffs, “please don’t do this. Weren’t we always supposed to be loyal to the village?”

“Kakashi!” Sakumo’s voice is sharp, “that was _before_.” He softens, “I’m sorry about this Kakashi, but I couldn’t sit by while they just... threatened you. I can’t lose you, you are _everything_ to me. I can’t, I couldn’t let them hurt you to try and get to me.”

Kakashi hesitates, his hands tightening around his hitai-ate. _I earned this,_ he wants to say, _it took so much blood and sweat to get this! Took me so much to make people look past my age and see my worth as a shinobi!_ Instead he asks, “what did they want to do?”

Sakumo closes his eyes as his back slumps, “that is… something you don’t need to know. It… won’t be happening anyway, not that we’ve left. We should move soon, the Raikage was merciful and gave us a head-start before he would send out hunter-nin.” Kakashi doesn’t think he’s ever seen his father this tired, not even after coming back from battlefields or assassinations or months-long infiltration missions, so with shaking hands he gives his hitai-ate over to Sakumo and closes his eyes just before he hears metal scratch at metal.

Like nails on a chalkboard, or the sizzling of a fuse, it’s probably one of the worst noises he’s ever heard.

When Kakashi opens his eyes, he stares down at the metal plate. The slash through the cloud symbol feels like hurt and betrayal and something like a death sentence. He turns his gaze to his father just as he’s refastening his hitai-ate back to his forehead, “Where are we going? You said yourself, we should move soon.”

Sakumo pushes himself to his feet and quietly murmurs something that sounds like, “to have been blessed with a son as good as you, I must’ve been a martyr.”

And then, louder, “the Land of Iron, I’ve heard that their samurai and kenjutsu is the essence of legends, I would rather be honoured to see it with my own eyes. We’ll move on from there when the hunter-nin catch up.”

_When, not if,_ Kakashi wants to point out, because _of course_ Kumo would never let Sakumo live peacefully, not after going missing-nin, not after he’d made a name as Kumogakure’s White Fang.

As they skid down the slope of the mountain’s face, Kakashi thinks he hears past the whistling wind and rolling thunder, “for what it’s worth, Kakashi, I’m sorry.”

“If only we were born to a village like Konoha…”

Thunder clouds and lightning storms follow their footsteps.

* * *

It’s been coming up to almost three years since Sakumo and Kakashi had betrayed their village and they’ve made some kind of peace with the lives they now live.

War has come to the shinobi world, but it has little effect on their way of life. Civilians still look at their scratched hitai-ates and lower their eyes and give their services, shinobi still glance at Sakumo, with his white hair and wolfish grin and pretend that they don’t leave as quickly as possible.

But there’s a freeing kind of wanderlust to their life, to their travels, sometimes Kakashi says to Sakumo, “tou-san, I heard that the Land of Rivers will be having a mid-summer festival,” and Sakumo says back, “of course,” and then they seal up their belongings and head towards the Land of Rivers, sometimes Sakumo says to Kakashi, “the Land of Bears has a new wolf pack moving in, want to see it?” and Kakashi says, “I wonder if it’s going to be Ears’ pack?” and then they go to the Land of Bears.

(It isn’t Ears’ pack, it’s Stinky’s, named by Kakashi when they’d passed through the Land of This and the pair of them met the wolf right after a feast where they’d accidentally burst open the deer’s intestines. Kakashi and Sakumo watch from the safety of a tall, sturdy tree as the wolf pack and the bears fight, the wolves keen on invading the bears’ caves for safety and a dry space before the coming winter.)

Sometimes Sakumo bursts into their temporary homes, or inn room, splashed with blood, with crimson dripping from his fangs and covering his forearms and Kakashi has already sealed all their belongings, smelling the blood from metres away. He’d recognise lightning tingling across his tongue and crawling into his sinuses in his _sleep._

Sometimes when Kakashi says, “are we going to kill?” sometimes Sakumo would say back, “sure, we’ll feast well tonight,” or sometimes he’d say, “not right now, it’s a big squad,” or even sometimes, “it’s mercenaries today.”

Kakashi loves when it’s mercenaries. There’s not a single ounce of dignity he needs to give them, Sakumo lets him tear them limb for limb, rend flesh from bone and devour them alive, before they even understand that they’re going to die to a child.

And then he makes a mistake, Kakashi gets far too in over his head and by the time he sees that other mercenary, he’s already caught between a kunai and katana of two others. And then Sakumo’s there, his large frame a shield for Kakashi as he takes the blade to the torso, just below the belly button, where Kakashi’s head would’ve been.

Sakumo slices down, his tantou bisecting the mercenary from scalp to ribcage, before Kakashi sees him go down heavily. His blood roars in his ears as his head pounds and his hands shake. He slips under the katana and jerks away from the kunai, the mercenary with the kunai overbalances and Kakashi snarls, his mind whirling, he needs to finish the fight _yesterday,_ and see how his father is doing.

Fingers twist into _horse, ox, tiger, ox,_ and finishes with _bird_ and Kakashi lets the Fuuton rip from his chakra and slice at the scrambling man. It takes off his arm as he reels back and screams, _not enough_ , Kakashi does a snake seal, followed with a rat and settles a genjutsu over the one-armed man. Turning to the last mercenary, he claps his hands together, no need for seals with this jutsu, Sakumo had helped him create this. Lightning has always been _his,_ his to coax and to cultivate. White arches between his hands as he pulls his palms apart, it sparks and sizzles, the smell of ozone floods his nose as the arcs jump from one hand to another.

“You,” he snarls, “have made a mistake in coming after us.”

The last mercenary wheezes in shock as he turns on his heel and tries to run. A burst of chakra and Kakashi is _there,_ pushing his hands into the man and _pushing and pushing_.

The man dies.

Kakashi is left standing, his nostrils burn with the acrid smell of piss and cooked flesh. Then he shakes himself and runs to his father’s side, who’s wheezing quietly as he tries to put pressure against the stab wound on his stomach.

“How do I fix this?” Kakashi asks. His father is so _damn_ foolish, he loves Kakashi so much that it scares him, willing to abandon his village for him, willing to die for him. Kakashi turns his eyes to the ground, “I can fix this, I can learn how to heal. I’m a genius. You Will live.”

Sakumo huffs quietly and says, “let’s get to some kind of safety first. We need shelter before night.”

Kakashi helps his father up and slowly, they drag their way back towards the town they’d just left, leaving the carnage and corpses in the middle of the road.

“No hunting feast tonight,” Sakumo laments sadly, and Kakashi tightens his grip on his arm, “let them rot. They deserve to have their guts pecked out by the crows.”

Sakumo ruffles his hair.

“I’m sorry,” he says, and Kakashi slowly learns that he hates those words, “that you have to go through this.”

Sometimes Kakashi wonders what Sakumo always apologises for.

_I’m sorry that you were born to me,_ Sakumo never says, _I’m sorry that you were born to this life, I’m sure a better one would have been waiting for you if it wasn’t Kumo._

Kakashi still hears it.


	2. Rin

Kakashi is not a fool, he is a genius but there’s only so much he can learn without any instruction. He can’t quite get his chakra that glowing green, he can force out a flickering turquoise but that’s the best he can do.

He can only stop his father’s guts from leaking, puts pressure on the wound but he has neither the control nor knowledge to be able to seal the wound. Kakashi smells the infection before he can see it, it’s putrid and acrid and smells like death before the wound oozes pus and yellows, and then blackens. That’s when Kakashi truly begins panicking.

Sakumo’s state deteriorates quickly, he can’t get up, and soon he can barely stay conscious and the only noise he can make are pained wheezes.

Kakashi can feel the effects of the war in this backwater town, there’s a kind of paranoia hanging heavy in the air, none of the citizens have much kindness left in them, and even if they did, no one has the resources to spare.

Kakashi can _not_ lose his father, Sakumo means the world to him. Desperation sets his shoulders and when he hears of a small team of shinobi in town, he steels himself. They’re Konoha nin, and Sakumo always says that Konoha is a far kinder village than Kumo, so surely the shinobi won’t be too cruel. Kakashi flicks off the lights, best to keep Sakumo’s identity secret, Konoha may be at war with Iwa, but the White Fang’s reputation and bounty has surely reached the ears of all the Five Great Shinobi Countries.

“I’m going, tou-san,” Kakashi mutters as he opens the door quietly. There’s no reply and Kakashi grits his teeth. _Please,_ he prays to whichever god will hear him, _please let me find someone to help._

He follows the smell of damp forests and metal and finds who he needs.

_Healersoul,_ her scent cries out, _I will help._

* * *

The Third Shinobi War is a plague, Nohara Rin notes as she walks through the decrepit streets of a small, nameless town that borders the Land of Hot Water and the Land of Fire. The streets are simple, dirt packed roads, and the houses and people have an exhausted crumbling to them.

The fatigue and despair is palpable in the air. There is no happiness in this town, and there is not a single speck of kindness in the atmosphere.

She’s stalking through the alleys, trying to see if there’s any people who don’t quite fit, to see if Iwa has managed to infiltrate this border town yet. All she can see are weary civilians who take a single glance at her hitai-ate on her forehead and turn their eyes away. Rin has an hour and a half more before sundown, before she needs to head back to the inn to report back to Minato-sensei about her findings or lack-thereof.

It should be a relief that there’s nothing out of place to see, but somehow it still feels like a failure to her.

As she emerges from the darkened lane between two shops, she spots Obito coming out from behind an abandoned, crumbling household. His usually boisterous smile is replaced by a grim look as he gives a simple shake of his head. It seems even he can feel the oppressive weight that war brings.

There should be no danger in this mission, but there’s so much tension in her that Rin feels like a spring unsprung. Her fingers twist into the signs for _one_ and _thirty minutes_ and Obito gives a sharp nod and signals back _I tell Genma_ and then they both turn and stalk in opposite directions.

One hour and thirty minutes left, and if their reconnaissance is wrong and there _are_ and Iwa-nin here, Konoha might just lose this front, and it’ll be on their heads.

The pressure is so _suffocating_.

Rin goes down the block, trying to listen to any conversations through thin walls and half-opened windows. Two men are fighting, _I have no more money, give me another week_ , a housewife is crying, _please don’t sign up, I can’t lose you too,_ three siblings, _it’s okay. I’m not hungry anyway._ There is _nothing_ of use to Rin.

She almost jumps halfway out of her skin when there’s a tap on her shoulder. Kunai in hand, she swings around to see who had managed to sneak up on her. _Dangerous,_ her mind whispers, _didn’t hear him at all, even though I’m a live wire,_ and it’s a boy, shorter and younger-looking than her, with a shock of bright silver hair peeking beneath his hood.

“What do you want?” she demands, “who are you?”

He looks down at the kunai pointed at his chest and says, “You’re a shinobi? Can you heal?”

Rin snarls, her grip tightening, “answer my question!”

He looks up at her and something about his gaze prickles at her skin, his eyes are grey and dark and considering as they peer at her from over a dark mask, “I am Kakashi. I need a medic-nin.”

“I,” he seems to hesitate, “I can’t pay you right now, but I swear I’ll be able to later.” and Rin lowers her kunai, his words and body language are honest, if a bit awkward, and from what she can recall, there isn’t a shinobi of his age and looks in the bingo book, “what if I’m not a medic-nin?”

He gives her a long look, there’s something about him that says _really? Are you really going to pretend?_ And he tilts his head to the side, “your chakra. It’s, um, green. Which is healing chakra.”

_Give and take,_ Kakashi is telling her he can sense her chakra. _A show of trust,_ Rin thinks and she says, “where do we need to go?”

The relief that washes over the boy’s face would be adorable to Rin if she was less concerned about getting led into a dark alley and having her throat slit, and Kakashi turns on his heel and leads her westward, towards the area that Minato-sensei was supposed to be investigating. It’s only a small consolation that he would _probably_ be able to come to her aid if she turns out to be misled, and too far off the deep-end.

“My dad needs help,” Kakashi says as they enter through the back door of a run down house. Inside is low-lit, the only light coming from the setting sun in an open window. It smells of blood and infection as the sound of quiet wheezing fills the air. In the centre of the kitchen a man is lying on a threadbare futon.

“Tou-san,” Kakashi says gently, “I found someone who might be able to help you more than I can.”

It’s getting dark so Kakashi turns to Rin and says, “is it okay for me to hold your hand and lead you? The lights don’t work here and most people can’t see well in the dark.” So she offers up her palm and when he takes it, Rin can’t help but think that Kakashi feels awfully bony.

He brings her to his father’s side, helping her step over dark objects strung all across the floor. It’s so dark in the room that when she finally kneels down next to the prone man she says, “I can’t see anything, I’ll need to touch his wound to understand what’s wrong with him.”

It’s pitch black but she hears the slight shift of cloth and assumes that Kakashi nods. Rin almost dies out of fright when a bigger, clammy hand grabs her forearm and presses it into something sticky and warm.

“Oh my god,” she says faintly, Kakashi’s dad had led her fingers straight into the wound. A quick burst of diagnostic chakra tells her it’s a festering deep laceration, probably from a kunai being stabbed into his torso. The intestines are already healed, likely by a novice from the scarring pattern, but there isn’t much issue with that, some flesh had already necrosed and an infection had settled in.

Rin swallows, technically, she knows the theory behind healing these kinds of wounds, but her practical knowledge had only extended to quick first aid. She breathes out, “it’s deep and some of the flesh is dead, but nothing super important’s been damaged. You got lucky. I can burn out the infection, but I’ll need to cut out the necrosed flesh before I can seal it up.”

“What do you need?” Kakashi asks. Rin hesitates, “I’ll need something sharp and easy to cut with, a scalpel would be best, but a kunai would work too. Sterilise it in boiling water, and the left over water, bring it here too. I’ll also need a clean cloth.”

Rin waits in the darkness as she listens to Kakashi scramble around, he’s oddly clumsy and loud in an endearing way that reminds Rin of Obito. There’s a flare of chakra and she hears the bubbling noise of water boiling and Kakashi quickly comes back, he places a kunai in her hand and leads her other hand to his dad’s torso, “is there anything you need me to help with?”

“Um,” Rin says, “can you wipe up the blood that spurts when I cut out the necrosed flesh? It’s going to hurt, so could you hold him down as well?”

Kakashi pauses and then murmurs, “tou-san, can you hold still? We need to cut out the dead flesh.” And there’s a quiet grunt of agreement from the man as Rin uses her left hand to feel the wound, while her right hand plunges in the kunai.

There’s a keening noise, a hiss of breath, and Rin feels muscles tense in pain as she tries to work as quickly as possible to cut out the necrosis. Kakashi is swift with cleaning up any fresh blood, he mops it up almost as soon as Rin is finished cutting off chunks off flesh. Without her asking, he picks out the deadened meat just as they detach and pulls them from the wound and throws them to the side.

Rin sends out another surge of diagnostic chakra to see if there’s any more dead flesh, and when she comes up empty she lets her hand glow green as she begins killing off any bacteria that could potentially cause more infection and slowly begins sealing up the wound.

By the time she’s done, her chakra reserves are less than half full, sweat dots her forehead but she can safely say that the fresh scar tissue over skin wouldn’t be causing any issue with Kakashi’s dad’s movement.

“I’m done. He’s not completely fixed but he won’t be dying any time soon,” Rin says as she gets to her feet. Her head spins and she sways on the spot, Kakashi holds onto her elbow softly to support her as he leads her through the darkened rooms. He helps her wash her hands of the blood that seemed to cover all the way up to her forearms and shoves a small packet into her hands and says, “ we don’t have any money to spare, but… I can give you this.”

“And,” he pauses, as if trying to decide what to say next, “If you’re ever in need of help… Oh god I’m going to be in so much trouble, but if you need help on a battlefield, or something, I don’t know. I’m going to teach you something, dad’s going to _kill_ me.”

* * *

Kakashi leads Rin back to the inn her team had agreed to reconverge back at, ten minutes late. Obito looks like he’s so worried he’s going to lose his mind, Genma gives her a once-over and something in his frame loosens in relief and Minato-sensei gives her a cheerful smile that is so absolutely fake that she can see the stress lines around his eyes.

“There was nothing to report,” Rin says, “but there’s a lot of tension among the civilians. They don’t want the war to come here.”

Minato gives a sharp nod, “it seems as if there isn’t much to note here. We can leave, we’ll be back in Konoha by the end of the week.”

Rin idly brushes the small packet Kakashi had given her, she hopes she will never need to use it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: reunion


	3. Reunion and other things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kannabi Bridge is a mission, and Rin does what she needs to do to get out of it with her and her teammates in tact.

Rin isn’t saying that she thinks that their team might be just the littlest bit out of their depth but she sure is thinking it, when Genma’s head suddenly snaps up with a call of, “above!” and Obito releases a Great Fireball Technique.

Steam rises and metal clashes, Rin barely gets out a scream before something hard slams into the back of her head and her vision goes black.

When she wakes up, her brain feels like it’s too big for her skull and her ears are cotton stuffed, in front of her the Sandaime Hokage sits, to her left Minato-sensei, on her right Genma, Kakashi and Obito stand. The Hokage says something like, “mission report,” or it might’ve been, “what’s Konoha’s aim?” and the ground rises up to her knees like a wave.

“Whoa,” she says instead, “that’s really weird.”

“Go on,” Minato-sensei says encouragingly, “tell Hokage-sama what we were supposed to do.”

Rin’s head throbs, somewhere near the back of her skull and her vision blurs around the edges and a small voice says, _hey, a mission as important as ours, wouldn’t Hokage-sama know what it is?_ She frowns, “Uh,” her eyes can’t quite focus and the aching in her skull screams out, _wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong._

She looks up at Minato-sensei, “Aren’t you the team leader, though?” Minato-sensei drops a hand onto her shoulder and gives a tight squeeze, somehow it feels a little threatening, “I just think that it’s good practice for you to give reports for the future.”

She juts her chin towards Genma, “but _he_ was lead? Since he’s tokubetsu jounin…”

Her eyes catch blurred silver, “ _Whoa,”_ she says, with more emphasis, “why is he here?”

Kakashi looks back at her, something amused in his eyes, “am I not supposed to be here?” and Rin pauses, thinks about it, and brings her fist up to her forehead to give it a knock, “something isn’t right.”

Minato-sensei catches her arm and suddenly, he doesn’t just look a little bit frustrated, “tell Hokage-sama what our goal is!”

Rin squints at him, before she slowly says, “this is a genjutsu, isn’t it?” and the rage which crosses over his face almost scares her. But instead she closes her eyes and says, “ _Kai_ ,” and blocks her chakra to the point where it feels like she’s going to explode and then releases the bottleneck.

She opens her eyes and brings her gaze from the rocky floor to the rage-filled face of the Iwa-nin.

“Hi,” she says cheerfully as she carefully tests the strength of the rope binding her, it’s not tied very well, “you should’ve been more careful about who you put into a genjutsu.”

“You bitch!” the Iwa-nin screeches, and grabs her by the hair to slap her on the cheeks. She lets out a pained yelp as his palm leaves a stinging red mark, the ropes loosen as she manages to slip a thin senbon that she stole from Genma months ago, through. The Iwa-nin is angry, so, so angry that Rin can’t help but laugh, he didn’t even notice the loosening bonds.

He snarls into her face as he punches her in the stomach, fist landing solid and digging deep, spittle flying, “what are you laughing about, you crazy bitch? You’re going to die here, in this cave, all alone!”

Rin grins as she wheezes, takes a deep breath, and howls.

The Iwa-nin reels back in surprise and Rin tries to remember what Kakashi had told her, _start low, pitch higher halfway through the breath and then go back low when you’re almost out of air._ She projects her voice as much as possible, it sounds more like a shriek, or a scream, rather than the booming howl that Kakashi had done.

“What the fuck?” the Iwa-nin shouts, “what the hell are you screaming about? Crazy girl!”

He slaps his hand over her mouth as she starts up a second howl, and she bites down on his palm. He screeches and flings her away, “Ow! You Konoha bastards really are all fucking insane!”

She spits out the chunk of flesh she had taken and smiles, knowing very well her mouth is bloody and her teeth red-stained, “Come near me again and I’ll eat the rest of you like breakfast.”

The Iwa-nin looks pissed as he nurses his injured hand, “When Taiseki comes back, you’re going to be-”

There’s a replying howl.

Rin takes another breath and screams out the tune Kakashi had taught her and the Iwa-nin scrambles over to her, the blade wrapped on his uninjured hand pressed to her neck and she cuts off her howl.

“What the hell? Stop that!” He yells, he looks scared. _Good,_ Rin thinks viciously, _I hope he pisses his pants._ “You don’t know what you’re playing with. Whoever the fuck taught you howls is batshit insane, Iwa wolves are a whole different breed from whatever wimps your Konoha has.”

The howls return. They’re louder and more numerous, and they _keep going_. They echo through the air and they get so loud that Rin can almost feel her organs vibrating in her body.

“Holy shit,” the Iwa-nin whispers, metal still against her neck, “You’re actually insane. We’re both going to die to these fucking wolves.”

He looks absolutely petrified so Rin takes the chance to fully release the ropes that bound her, she chomps down on his arm and rips her head back. There’s a huge spurt of blood as the taste of iron fills her mouth and the Iwa-nin _screams._

He backs away from her, “you’re actually feral! Do you have rabies or something, you fucking _whore!_ ”

There’s a screeching howl from _right outside_ the cave mouth and Rin fumbles to reach into her packs, _where did she put it,_ and lets out a crow of triumph as her fingers wrap around the small packet that Kakashi had given.

She tears open the plastic and squeezes it, two clear drops ooze out and with shaking hands, she tries not to think about how she's _rubbing in sweat_ as she spreads it over her hands. She rubs her palms together and smears them over her neck and almost pees herself when a giant, hulking figure covers the entrance of the cave.

It’s a wolf, and it’s around four times bigger than what she thought a wolf would be.

“Oh my god,” the Iwa-nin whispers to himself, and his knees give out. _I’m so dead,_ Rin thinks as it approaches the two of them, and then, a little indignantly, _Kakashi said that he and his dad would come to help, not a wolf that’s bigger than my **house.**_

And then, with a tiny giggle, _maybe this wolf is his dad, since it was dark._

And then she squeaks as it gets closer and closer to her, her legs shake and her head feels a little woozy when it snuffles at her and sticks it’s nose that’s bigger than her palm, into the crook of her neck.

Her hands shake so hard as she reaches out to pat it and she hears the Iwa-nin whimper out, “oh my _god.”_

The wolf backs away from Rin and gives him a long look, before it’s gaze falls back onto Rin. She wants to cower away from it but with a trembling voice she points at the Iwa-nin and says, “Can you kill him? He’s a bad man.”

The Iwa-nin shrieks as the wolf begins approaching it and tries to scramble away, he manages out, “Doto-” but the wolf is fast, and big, and _powerful_ and it only takes one snap of it’s jaws to crunch the Iwa-nin in half. There’s blood and viscera, and Rin’s eyes can’t help but track the legs of the man falling to the ground, completely bisected from the top half of his body, with a string of intestines connecting the half that’s collapsed to the ground, and the other half, unseen between teeth that seem to be bigger than Rin’s hand.

“Rin!” There’s a shout and the wolf turns it’s massive head towards the cave entrance where Genma and Obito rush in. They promptly stop in their tracks as they try and process the absolute largeness of the wolf in front of them.

It snarls, and Rin says, “it’s okay, they’re my friends,” so quickly that the words seem to tumble and trip over each other. It huffs out a tiny breath and approaches the two boys, and Rin giggles when they both go stock-still and stiffer than boards, “The Iwa-nin in here is dead, I think there was another, though?”

Genma eyes the wolf warily and says, “The other Iwa is dead, he took ages to kill. He was too damn big, it took forever for the poison to circulate to his heart.”

Obito looks at Rin with stars in his eyes, “I activated my sharingan! I can totally kick ass now!” Then he frowns, “You killed that guy all on your own? He looked strong.”

Rin looks at the wolf, “um, I kind of had help.”

“Speaking of which,” Genma’s words have a lazy drawl, but something about it sounds wary, “I never knew you could summon wolves. Didn’t know that Konoha had a wolf summon at all.”

“I don’t,” Rin says slowly, “I- uh, it’s… complicated.”

Genma looks at her, “Are you half Inuzuka? But like, for wolves? Is that why you have the face markings?” Rin almost laughs from that, “no, I’m really not. I have no kekkai genkai.”

“Then wha-”

The ground shakes.

Seems like a Doton.

Genma clicks his tongue and spits out, _“reinforcements.”_ he points at Rin, “You’re definitely going to explain what all this is about later, okay?”

She waves him off and wipes her chin, smearing the blood. “This,” she says grimly, “is gonna _suck_.” The wolf butts it’s snout into Rin’s arm and she rubs the oversized maw absentmindedly and widens her stance, a kunai in hand. Cresting the tree branches, what looks like a small squadron of Iwa shinobi appear, and the wolf looks at them and throws it’s head back and _howls._

It’s so loud Rin can feel her bones tremble in place and her ears ring, she faintly hears Genma curse and slam his ears shut with his hands and Obito stumbles in place. The ground shakes and the wolf turns to Rin proudly and rubs it’s stupidly big face against her and almost knocks her down.

Her knees fully give out when she sees there’s an _even bigger_ wolf approaching, and it’s absolutely barreling towards them. “Oh my god,” she says dumbly as she stares at it’s form, it just keeps growing and growing in size.

It skids to a stop right in front of Rin and it snuffles at her, it’s humongous mouth open and panting and it feels like just it’s breath will push her over.

Her mind blanks on just, _it’s so big, it’s so big,_ and she weakly lets out, “hi, wolfy?” and it _laughs,_ except that it doesn’t, and Rin cranes her neck upwards and sees silver glinting off the lowlight and Kakashi’s staring down at her.

“That,” he says, and he sounds so amused Rin feels herself flush from embarrassment, “is certainly _not_ how I taught you to howl.”

“Well, I think I did okay, since you got the message, right?” Rin grumbles, and Kakashi chuckles and slides down the side of the huge canine’s neck, “it was so bad that the first wolf that heard it almost didn’t think it was a distress howl.”

Rin feels her cheeks burn red and quickly changes the subjects, “right, Kakashi-kun, the Iwa-nin reinforcements…” and he turns his eyes disinterestedly towards the treeline, “it’s okay. Tou-san will deal with it, because he’s strong.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she sees something white, and fast, streak by. It’s so quick she almost misses it but when she manages to fully put her attention, she realises it’s a man. Silver hair and a white blade, she suddenly has a really, _really,_ bad feeling about who Kakashi’s father is. She groans and puts her head into her hands and says, “Minato-sensei is totally going to kill me.”

“Uh,” Genma pipes up from behind Rin, “Rin, do you want to introduce us?” and then Obito, loudly, “yeah, yeah!”

“Oh,” Rin claps her hand together, “right! This is Kakashi-kun, I met him a while ago and helped him out. So the, um, wolves and everything else is him returning the favour, I guess. Kakashi-kun, this is my genin team, Genma-kun and Obito-kun.”

Kakashi squints at Rin, “isn’t there supposed to be a jounin-sensei, or something. Doesn’t your Konoha like teamwork and all that?” Rin lets out a small, “hah-hah,” and Kakashi asks, “Are they dead?”

“No!” Obito squawks, “Minato-sensei is just on a diff-mphhh!”

Genma slaps his hand over Obito’s mouth, “he’s not here right now, but he’ll get here soon.”

“Minato? Like Namikaze Minato, the Yellow Flash?” and Kakashi sounds so interested that Rin tenses up instinctively. Genma palms the three-pronged kunai that Minato had given him, “yeah, what about it?”

Kakashi opens his mouth from behind that dark mask, but before a word comes from his throat, there’s suddenly a man standing behind him. Rin flinches away, because he was silent and she _didn’t notice him_ but Kakashi’s head swivels around and he says, almost cheerfully, “tou-san!”

Rin wants to relax her muscles, she really does, but something about Kakashi’s father tingles at her senses, it’s a quiet voice in her head that whispers _danger, danger, be careful._ Genma, clearly is far too high-strung in Rin’s opinion, because he hurls the kunai towards Kakashi’s father and suddenly Minato is _right there,_ kunai and tantou clash.

“Genma-kun!” she screeches because you _do not_ just throw kunai towards an S-Rank missing nin and expect to survive, “What the hell?!”

“That’s the White Fang!” He shrieks back at her and waves his hand vaguely at Kakashi’s father’s direction, “We were going to be killed!”

“You’re an idiot!” She howls and turns her attention towards Kakashi and bows low, “I’m so sorry about him, he’s a bit slow.”

Kakashi doesn’t even look at Rin, his eyes instead glued to the two fighting men greedily, “the Yellow Flash is _so cool!”_ but then he coughs, “but tou-san is totally going to win…”

Metal on metal clangs and Kakashi's dad's arm blurs to block another of Minato's kunai, usually she'd be more excited about such a high-level fight going on before her eyes but she just feels faintly annoyed because this _doesn't need to happen._ Rin snarls at Obito, who looks just as starstruck as Kakashi, staring in awe with his sharingan as Minato-sensei takes a swipe and Kakashi’s dad responds with a kick that Minato-sensei dodges, “you’re not going to help either!” She slaps a hand over her eyes, _boys,_ and calls out, “Minato-sensei! Can you stop? He’s good!”

There’s a slight tinge of yellow-flared chakra and Minato is standing behind Rin. He looks tired and a little scuffed.

“Rin,” he pants, “that’s an S-Rank missing nin with flee-on-sight orders.”

She stomps her foot, oddly bratty, but also feeling extremely wronged, “ _then why are you fighting him?”_

She turns to Kakashi’s father, previously-Kumogakure’s White Fang, and gives him a small wave, “Hi, Kakashi-kun’s dad.” and he gives an amused wave back. He doesn’t even look puffed from the clash with Minato-sensei, but she can’t quite feel offended by it, because he was being dumb.

Minato looks a little bit confused and a lot wary as he shifts his stance to something a little-less battle ready and says, “I hope your explanation is going to be good.”

Rin _hmphs_ a little and bounces over to Kakashi, she grabs his hands and gives them a little warning squeeze, “Kakashi-kun is going to help explain, _right?_ Besides, we need to finish our mission, since we got a little,” she wrinkles her nose, “ _distracted._ ” Rin feels Kakashi testing the strength of her grip and she tightens her hands and he stops and says, with a sigh, “okay.”

Minato squints at her, and his eyes track down to her fingers which are digging nails into the flesh of Kakashi’s palm and says, “okay…”

“Great!” Rin forces out cheerfully, and claps her hands together, “let’s get going.”

They walk, Kakashi and Sakumo seem content in not knowing where Rin leads them, while Minato and Genma look wary and Obito, uncertain. Rin notices that when Sakumo walks, he walks with noise, very much unlike how he managed to sneak up on her and it’s only a _little_ bit concerning about how confident he is.

The group doesn’t speak, but when they’re setting the explosives on Kannabi bridge, Sakumo looks thoughtful and says, “oh, so your mission is to cripple Iwa’s supply lines?”

Rin tenses from her place, crouched next to Obito, who’s been unusually silent this entire time, “are you going to stop us?”

And Sakumo laughs, heartily, “I have no loyalty to Iwa, nor have they hired me. I just think it’s interesting that they’d send such a- no offense, weak team for such an important mission. Although the Yellow Flash has quite the reputation, but you genin were separated from him…”

"I’m a tokubetsu jounin,” Genma grumbles under his breath as he sets the fuse and calls for a retreat. They run for the trees and take cover as the explosions rock the ground and the bridge collapses.

“My apologise, Genma-kun,” Sakumo says good-naturedly and Rin almost gets blinded from the sheer niceness in his smile, the only other person she knows with that much kindness is probably Minato-sensei and even then, he has his fool moments. Rin sidles up to Kakashi as they walk and hisses, “forget Minato-sensei, your dad is the _best.”_ and Kakashi preens under the praise, his chest puffing out a little, “of course he is, he’s the strongest.”

There’s a short, “Hey!” from Minato and Rin squints at him and watches as he wilts, “yeah, your dad is _way_ cooler than Minato-sensei.”

Sakumo chuckles and Rin can feel the blush crawl down her neck because _oh my god he’s so Good,_ and she clears her throat. Before she can embarrass herself any further, Sakumo stops walking, and Kakashi follows his lead.

“Well,” he says, “this is us, I guess. We’re at the border. Grass is just over there.”

“Oh,” Rin says, and tries not to feel disappointed, “goodbye, then.” Kakashi’s nose crinkles, “bye, I guess.”

The air becomes infinitely more awkward. Rin wrings her hands, “Thanks for rescuing me…”

“Yeah,” Kakashi’s voice trails off. He shoves out a hand and Rin takes it in a handshake, “no problem.”

Sakumo claps a heavy hand on Kakashi’s back and says, “it was our pleasure. A life for a life, right? Besides, you guys were good company, and Kakashi might not admit it but you were all I could hear about after I recovered!”

“Tou-san!” Kakashi sounds scandalised and rips his hand out of Rin’s palm, “I can’t believe yo-” and Sakumo just laughs heartily and gives a wave, “Hopefully we’ll see each other around then!”

Rin feels like stumbling back because Sakumo is just too nice of a human being but instead blurts out, “OKAY,” and cringes from how loud her voice is, “okay,” she says with at a more normal volume, “but what if you join Konoha?”

Minato’s head snaps towards Rin with something like dread in his eyes, “ _Rin?”_ and she ignores him and powers on, “We crippled Iwa with destroying Kannabi Bridge, but they’ll still be able to fight for a little while longer,” her mind whirls, she knows this is a super bad idea and that she’ll get into _so_ much trouble but the words just keep tumbling out of her mouth, “if we have someone as prestigious as the White Fang, Konoha would be able to not only win a lot more battles, a lot quicker, but it’d also intimidate both Iwa _and_ Kumo from attempting anymore funny business!”

There’s a considering look on Minato’s face and Rin glances over at Kakashi who’s turned to his father with something like puppy eyes, “tou-san? Can we?”

Sakumo thinks, thinks, thinks and finally says, “How can we guarantee safety in Konoha? What if it’s a trap to take our heads and bounties?”

“Konoha wouldn’t do that!” Obito yells, puffing up in offense. Minato holds up a hand, “Rin-chan brings up a good point. Your power is undeniable, as well as your reputation, if you’re okay I can speak to the Hokage and negotiate with him. If he agrees, we can talk more about insurance and the like.”

Sakumo looks thoughtful, before he nods and Kakashi lets out a small noise that sounds a bit like “yes!” and Sakumo bites down on his thumb and with a puff of smoke and a, “kuchiyose no jutsu,” and the tiniest, _cutest_ little baby wolf blinks up at the group.

It yips and Rin’s heart melts. Sakumo gestures to it, “let her know what the verdict is. She already knows how to reverse summon herself and her parents are quite the ferocious pair. If anything happens to her, I doubt that your village will be standing after.”

With that ominous statement and a grin full of teeth, Sakumo waves and blurs away, Kakashi gives a sharp chin-nod to Rin and follows after him. The baby wolf makes a small, “boof,” and leaps towards Rin.

“Oh my god,” she whispers and cradles the small canine in her arms, “I love you. I’m going to protect you forever. You’re my little baby now.”

Minato groans and says, “how am I supposed to explain this to Hokage-sama?” Rin shrugs and Minato lets his head hang, “you were supposed to be the _easy_ one to deal with!”

* * *

“Right,” Hiruzen says, the four of them standing in front of him, at attention, “run me through it again.” Rin bristles because he doesn’t sound like he believes Minato’s words.

“We’re asking for Hatake Sakumo, the White Fang, previously of Kumogakure, and his son to be allowed to join Konoha.”

He threads his fingers together in front of him and leans his chin onto his clasped hands, “how, exactly, did you come across this… pair?”

Rin frowns and hugs the wolf, she’s decided to name her Apple, because she has a small white marking on her forehead that looks like an apple, even though the boys on her team couldn’t see it, “I _told_ you, I met Kakashi-kun, in Oe Town, while we were doing that reconnaissance mission and he asked for my help to heal his dad!” Minato twitches every time she refers to Sakumo as ‘Kakashi-kun’s dad’ so she keeps stubbornly doing it and Sakumo himself seemed quite amused when she did it in front of him.

“So I did,” Rin continues, “and then he gave me a scent packet and taught me how to howl for help if I was in trouble, because they didn’t have any extra money to spare me.”

Hiruzen drops his head and lets out a groan, “right,” and Rin ignores him and keeps speaking, “so then during _this_ mission, there were Iwa-nin who managed to kidnap me, and they tried to use a genjutsu to get information out of me- which I managed to break, and then I howled, so then a wolf came to help, and he killed the Iwa-nin while Obito-kun and Genma-kun killed the other Iwa-nin. _Then_ Kakashi and his dad came to help with the reinforcements- but I think they really came to heck if I was okay- and then Minato-sensei used his fancy jutsu to come as well-”

Hiruzen holds up a hand and Rin lets her mouth click shut. He pauses, then behind the desk Rin hears wood sliding and suddenly Hiruzen and pouring out a cup of sake.

He takes a sip.

“Okay, so they want to join Konoha?”

Rin bristles, if he’s going to ask for a second report, even though Minato explained everything already, surely he has the decency to listen to the full thing, no matter how simplified or informal it is, “yeah.”

Hiruzen finishes off the cup of sake, and then tips up the jug and takes a big gulp straight from it. He lets out a breath, “Minato-kun, what’s your opinion?”

Minato coughs and straightens, “I think that the White Fang would be a valuable asset. From what I’ve seen of him, he truly cares about his son. He has a good, honest soul and a burning Will of Fire. Although, that’s only from the short period of time we were together.”

“This,” Hiruzen sighs, “is going to _suck._ Diplomatically, internally and externally. Did he mention why he decided to abandon Kumo?”

“No,” Minato says unsurely. Apple looks up at Hiruzen and says, “oh, that was because they were threatening the cub’s safety, so obviously he left, yes he did. Pack is everything, yes, yes.”

Hiruzen’s palm meets his face, “yeah, that would do it. Goddamn Hatakes.”

“Hatake Sakumo and his son, Hatake Kakashi, will be given asylum and a place within Konoha. This is decreed by Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage. Let it be known that if my word is disobeyed and any harm befalls Hatake Sakumo and Hatake Kakashi within Konoha’s walls or by Konoha nin, Hatake Sakumo and Hatake Kakashi are well within their rights to retribution towards all that possess the Konoha name.”

The wolf cub yips, “oh! That was all that was needed, yes indeed. Um, what was I supposed to say? Right! With me, Yanoya, as fox witness, Namikaze Minato, Shiranui Genma, Uchiha Obito and Nohara Rin as human witness, the oath is sealed and should it be broken, Hatake Sakumo and Hatake Kakashi are entitled to vengeance, yes, yes.”

With a puff of smoke, Apple disappears from Rin’s grasp and she looks down at her empty hands with disappointment.

Hiruzen gestures Minato over and makes him lean down to be eye-level with the seated elder man, “Minato-kun,” he says cooly and drops a deceptively thin hand on Minato’s shoulder, “after the war… Good luck.”

* * *

Namikaze Minato has made quite the name for himself, rumour has it that he alone has slaughtered one thousand Iwa-nin. He moves from enemy to enemy, so quickly that they have no time to react before they’re dead. The yellow streak his blonde hair leaves earned him the title “Konoha’s Yellow Flash” and Iwa had issued a flee-on-sight order on him. But they’ve been pushed back, and back, and if they lose this theater, Iwa would be pushed back to their original borders and would have, essentially, lost.

So the shinobi of Iwagakure see the yellow streak left by the man who began the massacre and steel themselves for death.

And then the sky darkens, and heavy, swollen thunderclouds roil and boom, white, bright lightning streaks down and slams into the battlefield. The fighting stops, every single shinobi seems to hold their breath and even Minato pauses in his slaughter, his arms already covered until the elbows in blood as he holds an Iwa-nin with a kunai to the throat.

“What the hell?” the Iwa-nin shrieks, “Why is Kumo sticking their damn nose in?”

“Oh,” Minato says, “I thought he was going to flake.”

The Iwa-nin spits, “ _Who,_ Konoha?” And Minato bodily turns the enemy shinobi to show her the figure cresting a hill. Beside it, a giant, hulking form stands proudly, and the Iwa-nin sucks in a breath.

“Well,” Minato cheerfully says, “I guess this is Konoha’s win, right?” and slits the woman’s throat. She dies a gurgle and Minato Hiraishins across the bloodied battlefield to Sakumo’s side, “nice of you to join us,” and Sakumo grins back, all teeth and bloodlust, “glad to be here. I even brought Kakashi along, he’s been missing Rin and hoped she would be here.”

“I was _not,”_ Kakashi snarls from Sakumo’s side, “Minato-san, I never once said that.”

Minato leans down and ruffles the boy’s silver mop of hair, chuckling at the offended look he sends him, “it’s okay, I’m sure Rin’s been missing you too. She’s especially been missing the wolf cub you lent her.”

“Yanoya wants to see her again. She keeps insisting to be called Apple and says that the mark on her head looks like one. She’s never seen an apple in her life?”

Kakashi sulks and grumbles out, “can we fight yet? We’re just standing here making a scene and you told me I can feast after the hunt.”

Sakumo smiles and cheerfully draws his tantou. Minato usually wouldn’t be scared of such a small blade, but it crackles with an energy that makes him think that it’s _more,_ especially in the hands of such a deadly man, and it absolutely terrifies him, “Yes, Kakashi, I know it’s been a while, but remember not to char the meat _too_ much, it always tastes bad like that.”

Minato carefully puts aside the conversation for later and vows never to think about the implications ever again.

Kakashi lets out a loud whoop and claps his hands together, and when he draws them apart, like pulling something taut, white, white lightning crackles between his palms, jumping from one hand to the other. He slides down the slope, like it’s something fun and darts between Iwa-nin, whenever his hands touch flesh, they sink into it like butter. Sakumo sighs, “that’s my boy, well, Minato-kun, shall we join?”

Minato tries to mirror Sakumo’s bloodthirsty grin but knows that his teeth are too little and too blunt and they both throw themselves into the bloody fray.

It’s absolute madness and Minato had never truly understood why the White Fang was so widely feared, he hadn’t participated in the Second Shinobi War, until he sees what he thinks is the entire sky coming down and Sakumo illuminated with blindingly white lightning.

 _Ah,_ Minato thinks as he shoves one of his kunai through someone’s eye and into their brain, _the world is ending. This is what the stories would call ‘Doomsday’._

In the end, Iwagakure surrenders.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well! Thanks for reading until the end~ this is the end of the proper story ehehe > <
> 
> Also! Rin is purely feeling "i saw a man so pure and good that i started crying he is my hero and I would Die for him" hero worship/crush. It's definitely nothing weird, I am author and therefore I am god in this world and my word is law dont make this weird. hell, I would die for Sakumo if he was real, I would throw myself at his feet and beg for him to let me into his family can u tell i love him? 
> 
> I'm going to be adding another chapter that's just extras and little bits and bobs that I wanted to write but I felt would boat the story proper if I inserted it in. 
> 
> If you enjoyed any part in particular hmu with a comment! They're always rlly nice to see! and I do check every single one and cry about getting them ^^ anyways! hope to see you soon and remember to hydrate and take care of yourself~

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked it, leave a comment or kudos idk only if u want.... 


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